Batman: The Killing Joke
Once inside, they almost immediately blunder into security personnel, and a violent shootout and chase ensues. The criminals are gunned down, and the engineer finds himself confronted by Batman, who is investigating the disturbance. Panicked, the engineer deliberately jumps into the chemical plant's toxic waste catch-basin vat to escape Batman, and is swept through a pipe leading to the outside. Once outside, he discovers to his horror that the chemicals have permanently bleached his skin chalk white, stained his lips ruby red, and dyed his hair bright green. This turn of events, compounding the man's misfortunes of that one day, drives him completely insane and results in the birth of the Joker. Joker makes his move and he knocks on the door of Commissioner Gordon. Barbara opens the door and is shocked at the sight of the Joker, dressed in a tourist outfit and pointing a gun at her. Joker shoots Barbara in the spine and his henchmen enter the house and knock Commissioner Gordon out, while Joker starts undressing the wounded Barbara and takes out a camera. Barbara is taken to a hospital and the doctors tell Bullock that the damage caused by the bullet would make her unable to use her legs ever again. Batman visits Barbara and when she recovers, she begs Batman to save her father from whatever the Joker has planned. Joker takes Gordon and imprisons him in a run-down amusement park. His deformed henchmen then strip Gordon naked and cage him in the park's freak show. He chains Gordon to one of the park's rides and cruelly forces him to view giant pictures of his wounded daughter in various states of undress. Once Gordon completes the maddening gauntlet, the Joker ridicules him as an example of "the average man," a naive weakling doomed to insanity. Batman searches all over the city for Joker with no good results. Suddenly, the Bat-Signal beacons in the night and Harvey Bullock gives Batman two tickets to the abandoned amusement park. As Batman arrives to save Gordon, the Joker retreats into the funhouse. Gordon's sanity is intact despite the ordeal, and he insists that Batman capture the Joker "by the book" in order to "show him that our way works". Batman enters the funhouse and faces the Joker's traps, while the Joker tries to persuade his old foe that the world is inherently insane and thus not worth fighting for. Eventually, Batman tracks down the Joker and subdues him. Batman then attempts to reach out to him to give up crime and put a stop to their years-long war. The Joker declines, however, ruefully saying "It's too late for that... far too late". He then tells Batman a joke, which reflects their current situation and is funny enough to make the normally stone-faced Batman laugh. While they are laughing, Batman reaches across to Joker. The picture moves away from the two foes, and they stop laughing abruptly while the sirens of the police cars keep getting louder as they approach the two men. In the end all noise cease and only the rain keeps pouring down. | Appearing1 = Featured Characters: * Supporting Characters: * * * Antagonists: * ** ** Huey, Dewey and Louie * Vinnie & Joe Other Characters: * * ** * * * * * * * * Mitchum * Lester Locations: * ** ** ** Bonus Brothers Carnival and Amusement Park *** ** *** ** Items: * * * * * Vehicles: * * | Notes = * This story is collected in the following: ** Batman: The Killing Joke Deluxe Edition, which features a new color palette and various bonus materials from Brian Bolland. ** DC Universe: The Stories of Alan Moore * This was the third Batman story DC published under its squarebound "Prestige" format, preceded by only Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and Batman: Son of the Demon. ** Due to overwhelming critical and fan reception, it quickly entered second, third and fourth printings (easily distinguished by cover logos colored differently from the original's green). * Continuity notes: ** This story was originally released in conjunction with , which established that Barbara Gordon had retired from active duty as Batgirl some time beforehand. While the two stories never directly reference each other, Batgirl Special writer Barbara Kesel later confirmed she was specifically commissioned to facilitate a new status quo for the character.Killing Joke in Canon Continuity *** However, the concept that Batgirl was retired by the time of the Joker's attack was contradicted by a number of later stories, particularly , which depicts Wonder Woman and Zatanna meeting a still-active Batgirl the night before the attack. ** The events of this story were first directly referenced by , the first part of the "A Death in the Family" storyline. ** This story's depiction of the Joker's (possible) backstory draws heavily from the Red Hood's debut in . It has, in turn, influenced many later depictions of the Joker's origins: *** directly continues the concept of the Joker once being a failed comedian trapped in poverty, and even reproduces several scenes from his ill-fated venture as the Red Hood. However, it also (re)emphasizes that the Joker cannot accurately recount his origins (at one point wondering if his wife had actually been "three wives and a goat"). *** follows a similar sketch, though it makes several greater changes, such as establishing that Jeannie had been killed by a corrupt policeman. This version was supposedly witnessed by Edward Nashton shortly before he debuted as the Riddler. *** contains a two-page feature - drawn by Brian Bolland - where the Joker directly narrates and taunts the reader with three possible accounts of his backstory. One of these accounts contains the failed comedian depicted in this story; another reproduces this story's illustration of the Joker's first laugh. *** It should be noted, however, that a number of Joker origin stories - such as Paul Dini's "Case Study" (collected in ''Batman: Black and White, Vol. 2'') and Michael Green's "Lovers & Madmen" ( - ) - avoid referencing this story in any capacity. | Trivia = * During Zero Hour, a Batgirl of an alternate timeline appears who was never shot by the Joker. In her timeline, Commissioner Gordon was murdered that night and she grew on to a healthy older career, and even a romantic relationship with Batman himself. * In ''Booster Gold (Volume 2)'' #5, Booster Gold is sent back in time by Rip Hunter in an effort to prevent the Joker's attack against Barbara Gordon. According to Hunter however, most historical events are immutable despite however many times one might attempt to manipulate the timestream, and the crippling of Barbara Gordon is one such event. He had been trying to teach Booster a lesson in temporal mechanics. *James Gordon, Jr. makes a reference to the events of The Killing Joke in the Black Mirror story arc. He mentions having been in a cell in Arkham Asylum adjacent to the Joker's, and hints at having given the Joker the idea to attack his sister. This is never further elaborated upon, and may have simply been a tease on the part of James's character, rather than an actual retcon of events. | Recommended = * | Links = * * }} Category:Graphic Novels